Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz, the Paradise, California couple who were arrested in February 2010 in the beating death of one child and the severe beating of another, were sentenced to prison this morning.
Elizabeth and Kevin Schatz were expected to go to trial Monday in Butte County Superior Court for the Feb. 4 and 5, 2010, beating of adopted daughters Lydia Schatz, 7, and her then 11-year-old sister. Lydia died of her injuries; the older girl required hospitalization but recovered.
Both have now pleaded guilty.
Attorneys again asked a judge Thursday to postpone the trial of a Paradise couple for allegedly whipping their 7-year-old adopted daughter to death.
A judge Thursday continued a trial against a Paradise couple for the alleged murder and torture of their adopted child, so attorneys can read the more than 6,000 pages of evidence, with more coming.
The pair allegedly caused the death of their 7-year-old adopted daughter and serious injuries to her 11-year-old sister during separate “biblical chastisements” with a whip-like instrument in February at the family home.
A Paradise couple are scheduled to stand trial in November on murder and torture charges involving two adopted children.
They are accused of causing the death of a 7-year-old adopted girl and serious injuries to her 11-year-old sister during separate “biblical chastisements” with a whip-like instrument in February at the family home.
According to authorities, she was beaten for several hours with a quarter-inch plumbing supply line as her parents took turns holding her down and using the instrument. The blows reportedly cause Rhabdomyolysis, which is a breakdown of muscle tissue which fatally damaged her vital organs.
According to local authorities, Lydia’s “biblical chastisement” leading to her death may have been for mispronouncing a word during a home-school reading lesson.
A preliminary hearing has been set for May 25 to determine if there is enough evidence to try Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz for the alleged murder and torture of two adopted children.
Authorities allege the couple used a quarter-inch plumber’s supply line during a “biblical chastisement” that went too far, resulting in medical complications that caused the death Feb. 5 of 7-year-old Lydia Schatz and left her sister, Zariah, 11, hospitalized with serious injuries.
A couple accused of fatally beating their adopted 7 year old daughter entered pleas of not guilty to murder charges.
Prosecutors say the Schatz repeatedly hit their children with plastic tubing as a form of punishment.
Because the wife has retained new counsel, a Paradise couple charged with the murder of one adopted daughter and torture of her sister, did not enter pleas to the charges in court Thursday.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have disclosed that a book by a Tennessee-based fundamentalist Christian ministry, espousing “biblical chastisement” with the same quarter-inch plumber’s supply line alleged to have been used in the ridge beatings, was found in the Paradise home of Kevin Schatz, 46, and Elizabeth Schatz, 42.
Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz are expected to enter a plea today. They are accused of killing Lydia Schatz and severely beating their 11-year-old adopted daughter, Zariah Schatz.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said he has a direct connection between the Schatz case and No Greater Joy Ministry, a fundamentalist religious organization founded by Michael and Debi Pearl.